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The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

Chapters 12 and 13

Important Quotations Explained

Summary

After her conversation with August, Lily spends some time
alone. She struggles to forgive her mother but finds it incredibly
difficult. August realizes that Lily needs time to grieve for her
mother, just as everybody recently needed time to grieve for May.
Rosaleen and the Boatwright sisters, conscious of Lily’s need to
grieve, stay out of Lily’s way. Meanwhile, June prepares for her
wedding, which is set for October 10. When
Lily finally gains enough strength to reenter the social world,
she comes upon Rosaleen in a new dress. Rosaleen tells Lily that
she is wearing the dress because she is going to register to vote.
Lily is shocked and worried, because of what happened the last time
Rosaleen tried to register, but August assuages her. Lily realizes
she is proud of Rosaleen. Later, Lily runs into Zach, who tells
her he is headed to the white high school the upcoming year. Lily
commiserates, telling him she most likely will have to go back to Sylvan.

Later, Lily finally begins to consider forgiving her mother.
The next morning, Lily and August head to work on the bees. Because one
hive is missing its queen, they must get it a new one. August reveals
that she was hoping Our Lady would stand in for Lily’s mother, just
as Lily had imagined she would. August then explains the nature
of Our Lady, how she is a presence in every part of the world and
not an actual being in heaven. She explains that Lily must find
a mother inside herself, and she should not expect an outside force
to mother her. August explains that the mother acts as a power inside
of her, one that she can rely on when she is feeling weak or alone,
sad or tired. Lily appreciates this sentiment and takes it to heart.
It comes in useful almost immediately. A few hours later, Lily answers
a knock on the door, only to discover T. Ray standing there.

T. Ray arrives in a controlled but angry state and immediately begins
to scold Lily. (He discovered Lily’s location by calling a strange
number that appeared on his phone bill; Ms. Lacy answered, and told
T. Ray about Lily. Confused by how much more mature she looks, T.
Ray begins to yell at her as if she were Deborah. Frightened, Lily
calls him “Daddy,” and he stops pushing her around. Lily feels now
that she understands him more than ever. However, he still demands
that she return to Sylvan with him. As T. Ray is about to drag Lily
off, August and Rosaleen show up. August gives him a way to save
face, telling T. Ray that he would help her out greatly if he would
leave Lily at the house. He recants and agrees to leave. As his
truck is driving away, Lily yells for him to stop and asks him who
really shot Deborah. He tells her, again, that she did. In the end,
Lily stays at August’s house, goes to school with Zach, and remains
a part of the Boatwright family. She even forgives her mother and
she realizes that she has gained many mothers in the Boatwright
sisters and the Daughters of Mary.

Analysis

As the novel’s conclusion, the final chapter completes
several narrative arcs. In the first chapter, Rosaleen sets out
to register to vote and is deterred. In the final chapter, she finally
completes this intended task. Kidd uses Rosaleen’s desire to be
a registered voter to spur the original action: Rosaleen’s arrest
leads Lily to leave T. Ray, which, in turn, leads Lily and Rosaleen
to the Boatwrights. In this final chapter, Rosaleen’s ability to
register signals to readers that the action of the novel has finished.
Although there will still be difficult times ahead for Lily and
the other characters, there will be no more running. Lily has found
a home and a family, and she is staying put.

Lily’s conversation with August in the fields marks the
first time Lily has contributed equally to a discussion of spiritual
matters with August. At this point, Lily can actively participate
in this talk, because she has done enough thinking and had enough
experiences to really understand what August is talking about when
she mentions the religious, spiritual realm. By the end of the novel,
Lily has found friends, a lover, community, and a way to forgive
her mother. With August’s help, she is able to accept another kind
of maternal support—that of the Our Lady of Chains statue. For a
while, Lily has been praying to the black Mary, while taking part
in the rituals of the Daughters of Mary and, privately, on her own.
Only now, however, is Lily able to see that what she thought was
a prayer to an outward manifestation of a god or being was actually
a prayer to herself, to something deep within her. August helps
Lily realize that everything she has been looking for all along
has been inside herself, like a bud ready to bloom once she gave
it enough water. Metaphorically, August has provided Lily with the
water, and this conversation is like a dramatic reenactment of the
water being poured. Now, Lily is able to fully bloom into the woman
she is destined to be.

Kidd does not conclude every plot point neatly. In particular,
the end of the novel does not bring closure between Lily and T.
Ray. Instead, it brings a certain level of understanding to their
relationship. At the beginning of the chapter, Lily has finally
found a way to forgive her mother for being a flawed and complicated
human being. When T. Ray arrives at the Boatwright house, Lily initially just
sees the angry, petty man she remembers from Sylvan. However, when
T. Ray enters a violent trance and confuses Lily with Deborah, her
mother, she realizes that T. Ray harbors a lot more resentment toward
Deborah than Lily initially realized. She sees how hurt T. Ray was
by Deborah’s leave-taking. Lily realizes that both she and T. Ray
have been suffering from Deborah’s departure and death. Realizing
this similarity allows Lily to develop some paternal affection for
him, even though she still remains frightened of him and does not
want to return with him to Sylvan. She attains some emotional closure,
and, although he leaves without actually uttering any companionate
words to her, Lily is able to forgive him for being a flawed man
just the way she forgave her mother for being a flawed woman. Likewise,
at the end of the novel, readers and Lily learn the truth: Lily
did, in fact, kill her mother, although she did it accidentally.

Someone in my class had this problem, probably from looking on this page as well. The No. 3 Quote is wrong. In the book the quote is about impossibility after talking about being in love with zach and it says "THE WORD (impossible) IS A GREAT BIG LOG THROWN ON THE FIRES OF LOVE"